


The Way That I Found You

by Basingstoke



Category: due South
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-08-10
Updated: 2002-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-02 15:22:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basingstoke/pseuds/Basingstoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Cara Chapel.</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Way That I Found You

**Author's Note:**

> For Cara Chapel.

Fraser woke suddenly at the touch of hands to his chest.

"Hey," Maggie said.

"Hello, er, good morning. What time is it?" Fraser blinked, attempting to find his bearings.

"About three in the morning. You don't have to get up."

"I see."

"I was hoping you wouldn't get up." She leaned a little closer--and she was wearing only an undershirt and panties, luminous white in the darkness as she knelt beside his cot, and her hair was unbound and the invitation was clear.

"Oh. _Oh._" She kissed him. He let her.

"I can bring my bedroll in. Your cot seems none too sturdy," she said softly.

"Thank you kindly....No!" Fraser sat bolt upright. The cot creaked alarmingly. "No, I'm afraid we can't do this."

"No?" Fraser couldn't listen to the emotion in her voice--he knew he was right, damn it all. He knew he couldn't possibly.

"I'm afraid that--I'm a homosexual. In a relationship, a homosexual relationship." He tugged at the collar of his undershirt. It sounded _terrible_ in Queen's English, but he didn't know any other words for it. _I have an attachment to the taste of the back of his neck and if I sleep with you in my arms I'll dream of him._

Maggie sat back. "Oh. _Oh._"

"I'm very sorry."

She prodded his arm. "Mum always said never to be sorry for being in love. So don't, eh?" She stood up, stirring her scent around her.

"You're very beautiful," Fraser said, meaning _you smell like marigolds in the sun and feel like the silk of my grandmother's wedding veil and I would never grow tired of being near you._

Maggie paused by the door. "Thanks, Benton," she said, and Fraser thought she smiled.

She left. Fraser pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and lowered himself back to the pillow. Dief grumbled from his blanket under the desk.

"I know I wasn't entirely truthful," Fraser muttered, "and I am fully aware of what you would have done in this situation."

Dief snorted.

"It wouldn't be fair to her. Or to Ray."

Dief whined.

"Of course we can't go see him." Fraser opened his eyes and stared out the sliver of window he could see from his bed.

Dief whined again.

"You hate airplanes. It's too far to walk."

Dief stirred himself to stand beside Fraser.

"Dogsleds only run over snow, but I appreciate the thought, Dief. Go to sleep. We have a full day tomorrow."

Dief licked his cheek--then promptly nosed his way out into the hall to sleep with Maggie. The latch clicked shut behind him. Fraser didn't bother himself to wonder how; instead, he lay very still, hands folded over the sheets across his chest.

_The bristle of the hair on your head, like a toothbrush, and the bristle of your face, like a hairbrush, and the way that comparison still amuses me--_

_The feel of your nails, like sanded wood against my skin and like polished horn in my mouth--_

_The sound of your voice when you're mocking me and the tilt of your eye that tells me it's affection--_

_The sharp smell of your shoe polish and the slight smile on your face at a job well done--_

_The outline of your legs beneath your trousers, concealed and exposed as you move--_

_The sound your naked skin made as you slid across my sheets--_

_The way you said my name, the last time I spoke to you._

_The fact that I haven't yet said that I love you and the fact that you always knew._

Then he slept.

THE END.

 

All comments are welcome.


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